Late in 1908, two mates set up camp at an idyllic spot by the Namoi River not far from the small town of Wee Waa in northwestern NSW. Some weeks later, one of the men, Harry Johnson, would be pulled from the river, his badly decomposed body anchored down in the Namoi’s waters with an…
Around 1891, Peter Stein, a “hard headed, practical, frugal German,” sold his property at Wagga Wagga, packed up his family, including his adult son Jacob, and set off in search of new property in the Dubbo district of central western New South Wales. On arrival in the district, Peter and his son, Jacob, took up two…
In Murderer fingered by Fisher’s Ghost, an encounter with the ghost of Frederick Fisher sitting on a railing and pointing to a spot up the creek where his body would soon be found led to the conviction and execution of his murderer, George Worrell back in 1826. In 1850, at Maitland, in the Hunter Valley…
A successful farmer disappears in the dark of night. The missing man’s neighbour and close associate claims he has left the country and immediately begins taking over all his business affairs. Suspicions turn to foul play. Four months later, a ghostly encounter leads to the discovery of a man’s body buried in a boggy creek.…
In early 1887, the Large family, living on a remote Cooyal property near the central west NSW town of Mudgee, was terrorised by an inexplicable nightly rain of luminous stones falling, and sometimes floating, inside their house. At first, some of the Large’s 15 children were suspected of larking around, but it soon became apparent…
In April 1870, a letter was published in Sydney’s Empire newspaper written by an “old bushman” describing a terrifying supernatural encounter he had 25 years earlier while camped one night in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales. While resting by the fire watching over a flock of sheep, the bushman is approached by the…
One evening in July 1909, passengers aboard the steamship S.S. Waratah waved goodbye from the decks to family and friends lining Durban’s pier amid shouts of “Bon Voyage!” “Take her to sea!” ordered Captain Joshua Ilbery, watching from the foredeck. A tug then steered the vessel safely out of the South African port into deep…
